Tory frontbencher Penny Mordaunt endured a nightmare evening in the ITV studio as her party’s record was torn apart by senior figures including Angela Rayner and Nigel Farage
Penny Mordaunt accidentally delivered a scathing insult to her boss, leaving ITV viewers laughing.
The Conservative front-runner endured a brutal night of being repeatedly ignored by the other six party leaders. She was jeered as she desperately tried to defend Rishi Sunak’s record in the face of an optimistic Nigel Farage, who only found out shortly before the debate that his Reform Britain party had beaten the Conservatives in a major YouGov poll.
And she was the victim of fierce abuse from Labour politician Angela Lyner. Mordaunt stumbled at a crucial moment when asked why voters should trust the Conservatives despite years of broken promises.
When questioned about the Conservative Party’s failure to reduce net immigration, Farage asked why voters should believe his fifth election manifesto promise to reduce net immigration. Last year it was 685,000, down from around 230,000 in 2019, when then Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to cut it.
In response to the Reform UK leader’s question, she said: “Farage, who has been mocking Mordaunt all night because of this Prime Minister’s record, burst out laughing and said: ‘I’m delighted.'” The answer drew a roar from the audience.
It was a tough argument for Mordaunt, but Farage relished every opportunity to boast. When he tried to persuade viewers not to support his right-wing party, Farage retorted: “A vote for you is a vote for Labour.”
And in a surprisingly close race with Mr Rainer, she desperately tries Mordaunt to turn the tide, but to no avail. She sought to defend her party’s record on immigration, saying Labour should have done better from the opposition. “They’ve had 14 years to come up with ideas on this issue, and we’ve had some ideas,” she said.
Labour’s deputy leader quickly replied: “You’ve been in government for 14 years.” The brutal refusal drew laughter from the audience. Ms Mordaunt also drew laughs when she said the country’s struggling schools were “world class”.
Mr Rayner was one of four politicians, including Mordaunt, Mr Farage and the Liberal Democrat Daisy Cooper, to raise their hands when asked if they wanted to cut immigration. She criticised the Conservatives, saying the country was too reliant on workers from overseas. She said: “What we need at this point is a skills strategy.
“We don’t have an industrial strategy and a skills strategy, so we’re overly reliant on foreign workers in our economy to plug the skills gap. And they’ve done a great job of that, and that’s our job.” “But what we really need is, as employment levels rise again, we need to match those skills to give people the opportunity to get into those jobs.”
However, the SNP’s Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, accused Labour of: “The Conservatives, Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats are pushing for the “status quo at Westminster”.
And he told Ms Mordaunt: “You know what the public can’t afford Penny, is one single day more of a Conservative Government.”
Mordaunt, seen as a future leader if he won back his seats, was confronted by a jubilant Farage who said: “We’re the opposition now” after the Reform Party overtook the Conservatives in the polls. A YouGov poll showed the Conservatives’ support rose by two points to 19%, while the Tories only had 18%. A poll conducted after the release of the Conservative manifesto on Tuesday showed Labour’s support falling by one point to 37%.
In an ugly spat between the right flanks, Mordaunt said: “Nigel is a Labour deliverer, which accepts no caps, no targets, no plans,” to which Farage replied: “I don’t believe a word of what you say. You’ve misled us in the last four manifestos. I can’t believe the fifth one.
“And in terms of support for the Labour party, we’re ahead of you in the national opinion polls, so a vote for you is actually a vote for Labour.”
But Mr Farage did not escape unscathed. Plaid Cymru leader Lln ap Iorworth accused him of “going around the UK blowing a dog whistle for years, preying on people’s fears”.
It comes as politicians also face a surge in food bank use and the failure of public services by the Conservative government. Audience member Janice asked the panel: “The UK is a rich country. I’ve worked in housebuilding for 32 years. Why is it that I, working every day with individuals and families who I never thought would be in need, are now at serious risk of becoming foodbank dependent and homeless?”
And another, Denis, told them: “When the NHS was first set up. He was a brilliant man but unfortunately he’s now on the ground. So many public services no longer work as they used to.
He wanted to know what the different stakeholders would do.” Ms Mordaunt had been told by her rivals that the government had created a huge mess. “They’ve destroyed essential services,” the Liberal Democrat’s Ms Cooper told her.
Nearly six in ten Conservative voters think Rishi Sunak’s party is becoming increasingly unpopular and “in crisis”, according to the latest damning poll. A damning Savanta poll, conducted after the Prime Minister’s D-Day fiasco, found that 58% of people who voted Conservative in 2019 think the Conservatives are in chaos. And among the general public, that figure rises to 69%.
Savanta says only 18% believe the Conservative party is not in crisis. Mr Sunak is expected to suffer a humiliating defeat in the July 4 vote and has had to fend off speculation he may resign before polling day.
The Savanta poll found that 85% of those planning to vote for reform believe the Conservative party is in crisis, with just 13% undecided. Emma Levin, deputy director of the polling institute, said: “When senior government ministers have to be reassured that the leader will definitely remain in power on polling day, it is no surprise that voters feel a sense of crisis about the Conservative party.”
“Our research shows that some of Rishi Sunak’s key voter groups – those who currently claim to vote for Reform Britain – are the most likely to say the Conservative party is in crisis.”
This comes after the Prime Minister was booed and confronted by an angry public in a brutal party leadership debate on Sky News, with host Beth Rigby questioning whether he would even stay on in the post if he won the general election.
A shocked Mr Sunak faced the wrath of the horror night in Grimsby, angry NHS staff, angry young voters and even a local former Conservative leader. And a YouGov snap poll after the debate confirmed the Prime Minister’s complete defeat, with 64% saying Keir Starmer had won.
Mr Sunak faces unprecedented upheaval in the Conservative party since the 2019 election. Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and the incumbent have held onto the top spot ever since.
Ms Rigby asked him: “If you win the general election, how do you know you’ll still be Prime Minister a year from now?”
Mr Sunak, who has struggled to hold his fractious party together in recent months, replied: “The frustration of understanding people. Of course we haven’t done everything right. I don’t think any government would do that.” I know this is a very difficult time for many people but I can work as hard as I can to achieve the stability that I promised.’
Questions arose earlier this week when he was asked whether he would step down before the election and doubts arose that he should have rejected the suggestion, but Mr Sunak told broadcasters during a visit to the Dog and Bacon pub in Horsham: ‘I’m energised by the vision that we have for this country.’
The comments came after he faced criticism for leaving D-Day commemorations in Normandy early, leaving Prime Minister David Cameron with world leaders, and world leaders have since asked voters for forgiveness and admitted they had made a mistake.